Debt free the Fly lady way - anyone?

Tondella

Avogirly wrote:

I haven't been here for a while because I ashamably (sp?) fell of the wagon AGAIN! And I can't believe how far this thread has progressed. I joined at the beginning, but haven't done any flying yet. Therefore I will start today, not tomorrow, or next week, but here and now. Please feel free to harass me and kick me up the behind if I don't update my progress! Congrats to all those on their way, I hope it's making a difference.

you are never behind! glad to have you here now.

Avogirly

Tondella wrote:

you are never behind! glad to have you here now.

Thanks, I just feel that sometimes I'm trying to swim through treacle, and it's so frustrating!

mizmir

OK - I'll be first to spill the beans. Warning though - not for the fainthearted.

My spending diary for this week (includes cards and online payments but not DDs etc) is as follows (in no particular order):

Entertainment: £30.90 (dinner for someone leaving work)
Sweets/snacks: 0.95 (this is good for me!)
Claimable work expenses: £216 (no wonder we have a cash flow problem!)
Dogs: £257.83 (this includes vet fees when my oldest dog had to be put to sleep last week - only about £14 normally for the other 3)
Petrol: £0
Car repairs: £835.39 :eek: (for two cars)
Groceries: £63.85 (two weeks shopping for 2 of us)
Presents: £21.13 (said person leaving - but will get some back for this)
Postage: £2.92
Taxi: £8.50 (OH getting to work when car broke down - no sensible PT)
Ink catridges for printer: £21.13 (with cash back on quidco)

Nothing on clothes, lunches, personal spends which is good. But is amazing how it seeps away even when you are trying hard....

bobble_hat

Day Seven - The Mystery Revealed.

Evening all, hope you're all cosy at home away from the wind.

Well day seven for me, I've been keeping my spend diary since 1st January and am pleased to say it is having a very positive effect on me, I am spending less because I hate having to write it down.

It took me along time to get into the habit, but now it's there I can't stop and I've stopped hiding things from myself, which I was inclined to do.

Thanks Tondella, I'm really looking forward to the next 7 days. :T

Maisie_M

Well spending diary worked and kept me from wanting to spend during the day today which wasnt too hard as I was at work. The vendning machines with their amply stocked goodies called me and I resisted as I didn't want to declare it on here

However, by the time I got home through the horrendous weather I couldnt be bothered to cook so spent £11.55 on a takeway :mad: which is really stupid I know as I have plenty of stuff in the freezer and the cupboards to have made a meal - note to self need to be better organised for the days I work to avoid temptation. Mind you upside was I didn't spend anything during the day.

Have dug out an old exercise book which I will let the little one decorate for me tomorrow with crafty bits I have lying around - Day 4 is the bad juju okay need to have a think about that one.

millionaire_in_training

well I am bad bad lass. We have major snow here today and had to go out and rescue kids form school. Took me 2.5 hours all in and was totally miserable when I got home. Manged to spend £8.25 grrrrrrrr. Bought basics as I intended making bread, soup today but plans got scuppered with weather. DS took money for school lunch and I bought us all cake and sweets. Total waste of cash but hey I suppose thats why we keep our diaries so that we can see where we go wrong. Mine has shown me that in 2 weeks I have spent £45.04 on lunches and 1 take away and I am mad at myself. That's it no bloody more. The packed lunches taste much much better anyway. I just need to get organised. xx

katierose

Well i had been doing really well until i got laid up since tuesday with a lung infection i have been in bed ever since.
Hubbie so far has spent £6 in chip shop last night and £8 in chinese tonight .
In his defence though he is actually disabled and cant stand long enough to cook and he drops things easy as well ,so is better away from the cooker.

Hopeful to get back on tracks soon.

Tondella

Hello fly babies, the challenges for the next seven days have been posted over on the other thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=4057798&posted=1#post4057798

I have posted a couple of more challenging tasks this week, but because everyone isdoing so well at this I am sure that you will take them all in your stride

It's been great to see everyone's spending diaries for the week, firstly because we are all seeing where our money gets spent (and knowledge is power) and secondly because it is spurring me on to get in the habit of keeping mine! It's easy to be disappointed at the amount you have spent, despite your best intentions for the week, but remember, knowledge is power and for the first time you can see where your money is going and why it is going where it is going. So now that we know that money often gets spent when we are short of time and need to get dinner on the table we can try and avoid getting into that sort of situation in the future. I usually try and cook from scratch, but I'm kidding myself if i think I'm going to start making a soup when i get in from work late. So i throw a couple of packets of fresh filled pasta in my trolley and let them sit in the back of the fridge (they last a good few weeks), then they are always there if i can't face cooking. It goes against my trying not to buy ready made food, but it's cheaper than getting caught out and going to the shops all hungry and tired.

Ok, I'll post my spends in a separate thread

mizmir

Thanks Tondella for another 7 challenges! Am keeping up with last week's - all done for today. Braving the bills I can do - thankfully! Sometimes I open them with trepidation but I do now open them. But what I do need to do is put them somewhere handy - at the moment they are strewn around the house any old where so sometimes I get red ones for forgetting to pay them .
So my take on this task is to gather all the bills I can find and get a tray for them in my office. All bills will now go there!

The thing about facing them maybe leading to pleasant surprises is so true. Over new year we got a utilities bill based on estimates with a request to read the meters (hadn't been read since the summer!). I did and found they had underestimated by what seemed like quite a lot. When I entered the new reading on their website I even got an error message because it was too far away from their estimate :eek:
Anyway - their e-bill came based on the reading I sent and for days I didn't open it - was too scared to see how much extra we had to pay. When finally I did the total underpaid was a staggering .......
















..............wait for it...................






















£1.68! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Because we were paying a monthly rate it caught us up - so it seems that we are actually paying about the right amount (electricity stays pretty constant through the year as we have gas heating).
So don;t be afraid to open those bills!

bobble_hat

Day Eight - Braving the Bills

I'm actually in a really good position now. I'm living in rented accomodation where everything is included and I'm on PAYG for my mobile which I top up with £10 each month by direct debit.

The only bill I get is for my 0% CC, but I've also got a DD set up for this too.

I have DDs set up for Dental, opticians, Student loans, rent, car insurance etc. The money for these goes straight into a bill account from my wages on pay day. The only thing I have to really worry about is day-to-day spends.